How To Avoid Empath Ego-Traps

Being an empowered empath is a wonderful gift and blessing. But the empath ‘label’ can also become problematic when it is misconceived by some as meaning more than it truly signifies.

There are very common ego-traps that some empaths and highly sensitive people get hung up on with regards their empathic experiences. These ego-traps can be very counterproductive, as it may actually be holding them back from meaningful personal growth and progressing our spiritual path.

These ego traps are easy to get wrapped up in, but they are not a sign of weakness or failure. The experience of being an empath is often intense and confusing. These ego-traps offer lessons for us that often go hand-in-hand with life as an empath.

Some of the typical empath ego-traps are as follows:

Empaths Always Know Best

Assuming we are always right about how we ‘read’ a situation or person, or needing to save everyone and be everybody’s ‘therapist.’ We may have a good read that something is amiss, or that someone is upset, but its unwise to assume we always know exactly why.

Often empaths will feel something from someone and decide for themselves why that person is feeling that way. This is a good way to create conflict and tension in relationships! Instead of assuming, rather ask.

And if the person doesn’t want to talk about it, try assuming it is not about you, and that maybe you have no idea what is really upsetting them. Start there. Give the person space and do not make it about you.

If you believe you have mastered this world so much that you find it hard to live within it (you are too empathetic, intuitive or aware to be at peace) you are in an ego trap ~ Brianna Wiest

Let them know you are there if they wish to talk. If they do want to talk with you, and get some support, then they will, but give them the time and space to feel what they need, without pressuring them. Everyone has hard days; it’s far better to hold space for that person and their emotions. It also feels better for them.

Empaths Are Superior

Thinking that eing an empath makes us better than other people in any way, or that we have a special ‘superpower’ that other people don’t have access to, is arrogant and untrue.

Everyone has access to energetic information. We may feel it differently, and some may read certain aspects more adeptly, but being an empath does not make us ‘special’ or ‘superior’ in any way.

Being an empath describes how we experience emotional aspects of life, that is all. Some people may call it a ‘superpower,’ but feeling energy is something every single person on the planet can do. Many people don’t realize we do it, or aren’t interested, or don’t believe in energy, and that’s fine. But it doesn’t change the fact that we are both physical and energetic beings.

Having an energetic sense is completely normal. Some may be better attuned to the energy of nature, or others feel chakras, or see auras, or connect with those who have passed as a medium.

Everyone has their own way of interfacing with energetic information and that’s okay. No one is better than anyone else, we have our own unique resonance and aptitude. Not better, just different.

Empaths Versus The World

Adopting an ‘us versus them’ mentality, or ‘empath versus narcissist’ obsession, is an unhealthy approach to being an empath. Not every person we meet or who we don’t get along with is an apathetic jerk or narcissist.

This notion has become so overblown in the empath community. Frankly, some empaths create these dynamics themselves in their own relationships and then blame external sources or people. If we’re choosing a relationship that isn’t creating value in our life, that is still our choice.

Are we choosing toxic relationships, because we think we are the only one who can help that person? Or the only one who can love them? Are we prioritizing relationships with people who don’t value us?

If we adopt an ‘empath versus the world’ mentality, we are setting ourselves up to manifest conflict in our relationships. People treat us the way we teach them to treat us. If you feel taken advantage of, or beaten up by the world, ask yourself where you may have failed to advocate for yourself?

Consider your boundaries. What behaviors do you allow which are not supportive or healthy? What is your lesson in these challenges? That is where our power lay to transform the relationships in our life.

Empathy Is Everything

For some, being an empath becomes the focal point of their entire identity. Empathy is only an aspect of us and how we experience the world, but it should not entirely define us. It may even be a very large part of our world, but again, there needs to be more to our life than just being energy sensitive or highly empathic.

I see a lot of people struggling, because they feel like being an empath is such a fundamental part of themselves that they want to tell everyone in their life they are an empath. I believe we shouldn’t have to tell people this if it is absolutely necessary. Rather allow them to come to know you naturally.

Empaths Must Meet Criteria

Thinking our experience of being an empath is the only valid one is a grave error. I see some people advocating the notion that to be an empath we must conform to one particular way of being. The idea is essentially that a person can’t be an empath because they do not meet certain criteria or expectations.

I’ve literally seen people claim, for example, that if you’re not into crystals or incense, then you can’t be an empath. While some empaths are indeed into crystals or incense, it certainly is no measure of whether, or not someone is, or is not an empath.

It’s important to allow for other people’s experience of what being an empath is like for them, and recognize that it’s okay if it’s a different from our own. It doesn’t invalidate our personal experience as an empath.

If we can overcome these ego-traps, there is greater inner peace and personal power available to us – and we may even find that the quality of, and satisfaction in our relationships, deepens a great deal.

Being an empath does not have to make you a misfit or outsider. Consider the possibility that you can experience things differently and still be accepted, still be part of the collective. Because the truth is, we are. We are a beautiful and unique musical keystroke in the symphony of existence.